Icelandic journalists face jail for making a mistake

Lawyers acting for an Icelandic interior ministry official are asking for two journalists to be jailed because they mistakenly named her as a target in a police investigation.

In June, the journalists - Jón Bjarki Magnússon and Jóhann Páll Jóhannsson -identified Þórey Vilhjálmsdóttir, a political assistant to Iceland's interior minister, as a government leaker known as "employee B". They were wrong.

The journalists' newspaper, DV, issued a correction and apology to Vilhjálmsdóttir on the same day the report was published.

But Vilhjálmsdóttir opted to press defamation charges and her lawyers have announced they will seek the "maximum punishment", which is one year in prison for each offence. She is also seeking damages and legal costs.

The Vienna-based press freedom watchdog, the International Press Institute (IPI) thinks the legal claims are disproportionate.

IPI press freedom adviser Scott Griffen said: "The idea that a public official may seek imprisonment — or, indeed, any punitive remedy — for what appears to have been an honest mistake made as part of a serious investigation does not indicate respect for the media's critical watchdog role.

"This case perfectly illustrates that as long as criminal libel laws remain on the books, the risk of their abuse — and of a potential chilling effect on the wider media community — remains.

"We strongly encourage Iceland, which had previously positioned itself as a strong defender of freedom of expression and information, to carry out the necessary reforms to bring its libel laws in line with international standards."